2-22-11

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BE IT REMEMBERED that a regular meeting of the White County Council was held at the White County Building at Monticello at 9:00 A.M. on February 22, 2011 for the purpose of discussing the additional appropriations and other business that might come before the membership.

Council President Dennis Carter called the Council meeting to order in joint session with the Commissioners. The following members were present:

Dennis E Carter

Kevin L Crabb

Gary W Hendryx

Bruce D Clear

Raymond L Kramer Jr

James G Annis

Dennis D Cain

For content of joint session, see Commissioners’ minutes.

MINUTES

Councilor Kramer made a motion to accept the January 17, 2011 minutes. Councilor Cain seconded the motion.Vote: Unanimous

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS

White County 911 Communications Director Terri Conwell said there will not be enough money in the E911 Surtax to pay Salaries this year. The money from wireless phones, landline phones, and from the County all used to go into one bucket. Since the State requires it be split into separate funds, there is not enough money in Surtax alone for salaries. Therefore she is requesting $290,150 from E911 Wireless be put into E911 Surtax. Ms. Conwell said E911 receives $2.20 per month for landline phones and $0.50 a month for cell phones and $.50 for pre-paid phones. As people migrate from landline phones to cell phones there isn’t enough money in that fund alone.

Director Conwell said there are no big projects this year that would require funding. E911 equipment is up-to-date and ready for narrow banding when it begins. However, there will be new licensing fees for all the frequencies.

Ms. Conwell said she pays all the employees from the same account except for herself and part-time employees so the payroll person doesn’t have to pay from different accounts. It can get confusing. Auditor Guingrich said it will need to be advertised as an additional appropriation for one account and a reduction to the other. Then there will be enough at that point to pay the salaries for the rest of the year. This will be advertised for the meeting in March.

Director Conwell said she is training someone to replace the employee she lost, and is hopeful this new hire will stay. She said people don’t stay because of the stress of doing everything right. There is no room for error when dealing with emergency situations. There is a lot of technology to understand and multi-tasking. Once a call comes in, the goal is to get the location and the problem and have it dispatched to the proper authorities within 20 to 30 seconds. Councilor Cain asked if they needed more people working. Ms Conwell said there was a third person being used as a floater during the busiest time of 5:00 PM to 1:00 AM and to fill in when needed. That position has yet to be filled. E911 is open nights, weekends, and holidays. In the month of January she had ten shift call-offs, and the employees are getting burned out with the overtime. Councilor Cain would like to get more help for E911 at budget time. Ms. Conwell said dispatcher pay is not enough for a man to support a family, although the pay is comparable to other county dispatchers (with exception to Tippecanoe County which is considerably higher).

In three weeks Director Conwell is planning to have a Saturday, publicity orientation about being a dispatcher. She will have applications to pass out. She also sets up at Career workshops, but is open to suggestions on how to find long term employees. Before hiring people they must go through a four-hour interview, which is mostly spent watching how dispatchers work to see if it’s really what they want to do. Even then, she hires them as part-time to give them time to be sure they can handle it. She said the paperwork for payroll is too involved for full-time, if the people don’t stay.

Auditor Guingrich said the Commissioners will have an Additional Appropriation for next month out of the $2.3 million Vera Sun account. There are outstanding bills of about $1,600 County Attorney Loy said to pay from this account.

TWIN LAKES REGIONAL SEWER DISTRICT LOAN

Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District (TLRSD) Board President Thomas Pasquale said the District has budgeted $30,000 a year to pay off the balance of loans totaling $120,000. Council President Carter asked why the payment amount change was made and if the TLRSD could provide a written payment schedule. TLRSD Manager Mike Darter said he took it upon himself to make a payment plan since he never gets any input from the County. Councilor Cain asked why the original payment plan went from $37,500 per year to $30,000. Mr. Darter said the District could probably accommodate $40,000 a year if the County wanted an accelerated payment schedule. He said he’s never had any guidance from the Council and the $37,500 was going to zero out the amount owed at that time. Councilor Clear and Kramer reiterated the need to have a written commitment with a payment plan of his choosing. Mr. Darter said he would draft a letter from the board of Trustees to give the Council including proposed payment amounts and due dates.

SENTENCING REFORM BILL

Councilor Cain said he was at a meeting about the restructuring of sentencing of all criminals. The State will only take A and B felonies and Counties will therefore house more criminals. If the Bill passes, it will also cause Judges to restructure their sentencing. For instance, instead of sentencing one-year and three-year probation or in-house arrest, it will be all probation and in-house arrest. That will put more burdens on Community Corrections. Councilor Cain just wanted the Council to have the heads up on this bill (SB651) that’s in negotiations. He also passed around the 2010 Community Corrections report that Linda Roy asked him to share with the Council. Council Secretary Nydegger will email the report to everyone.

WHITE COUNTY SHERIFF NEW HIRE

White County Sheriff Pat Shafer said he would like to fill the Corrections Officer position that was opened severl months ago. The position was paid $27,665, but Shirley Loges will start at the base pay of $25,718.

In March there will be a Corrections Officer retiring, and there will be another replacement search.

The Jail houses 95 inmates on average. It beds 165, including work release. Jail Commander Terry Corso said in White County the ratio of staff per inmate is lower than what it should be.

Councilor Clear asked if Emergency Management Director Rose Brady had talked with Sheriff Shafer about a vehicle available from the Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Shafer said they were going to see what was available when the weather gets warmer.

NIGHT COUNCIL MEETINGS

Council President Carter said three people have asked him why Council meetings are during work hours when most people cannot come. Councilor Hendryx said other counties have tried changing meeting times and it didn’t make any difference in attendance. Councilor Kramer said there would be information and people unavailable to the Council in the evening who are readily available during the day (i.e. Attorney, Commissioners, and Department Heads and all those who would be on the agenda). Councilor Cain said it would also result in two meetings, because of the joint session with Commissioners or the Commissioners would also need to meet in the evening. Councilor Kramer said the employers of Councilors would probably prefer the Council didn’t take a half of a work day off to meet during the day. Perhaps the Council could hold a special meeting in the evening for someone if there is a hot topic. Councilor Annis said the School Board changed locations to accommodate people upon their request, but it did not cause a boost in attendance. Auditor Guingrich said often times people ask without a real intent to attend. Secretary Nydegger said it would be nice if there were a video feed, then meetings would be available to everyone and if there was a topic of interest to someone, he/she might find a way to attend or speak with a Councilor to voice his/her opinion. Auditor Guingrich mentioned that the minutes can be found online as well.

WHITE COUNTY EMPLOYEE SALARIES

Council President Carter reported County Attorney Loy said the Council could make an amendment to the salary ordinance for a one-time stipend to County Employees. Auditor Guingrich said she will put the numbers together and email them to the Council for consideration. The amount that gets decided upon will then be advertised. Councilor Crabb said he and anyone else who won’t be in attendance at the next meeting can share their opinion with another Councilor or via email. President Carter reminded the Council the money will come from the Lakeview Home sale of $530,000. Councilor Kramer was thinking $100,000 to $125,000 to use toward employee work compensation.

WHITE COUNTY CLERK & RECORDER PERPETUATION FUNDS

Councilor Kramer asked what the Clerk’s (#149) & Recorder’s (#29) Perpetuation Funds are used for because the Clerk’s has $93,000 and the Recorder’s has over $112,000. Auditor Guingrich said it is used for anything to do with recording or retaining of records like microfilms. She said salaries for the pertaining offices can be paid out of it. Councilor Annis suggested the possibility of paying part-time out of those funds. Councilor Kramer agreed it might be wise to use it occasionally for that purpose, but not to count on it on a constant basis. It is a fluctuating fund and has been used in the past for a large equipment purchase and could be used again for that purpose.

Along the same note, Auditor Guingrich said the State Auditors brought to her attention the Jury Fees fund (#174), which has nearly $92,000, could be used to pay jurors instead of using the General Fund.

Councilor Kramer said because of the State’s reforms, one way the County can change levies is through the inventory homestead credit of .07% which could be eliminated and go to General. Auditor Guingrich said Miranda Bucy with the State Board of Accounts could help educate the Council on the use of form 1782. Councilor Annis asked if there was a guide describing the use of each fund. Auditor Guingrich said there is not, and it’s been fund-by-fund researches for her as the request come in to use these various funds. Not long ago she had done some cleaning up of about twelve funds with small amounts, negative amounts, and stagnant funds (with the Commissioners support). Any monies in those accounts went into the General Fund which totaled about $70,000. Councilor Annis asked if the fund report could be sorted by flexibility. Auditor Guingrich said the Fund Report does not have that capability, but as she’s done research on the different funds, she’s made notes that would help her to compile a list. It would be time consuming, but she would try to do that.

Councilor Kramer reminded the Council Shannon Mattix will probably be back to pursue the use of landfill tipping fees with loans to the North White School district. Auditor Guingrich said Deputy Bill Heiny is not in favor of beginning this practice. She was unclear on the logistics, however.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to bring before the Council, Councilor Cain made a motion to adjourn. Councilor Hendryx seconded the motion.Vote: Unanimous